A structure for supporting an automotive windowpane such as a windowpane in a front side door in a vertically movable manner is presented, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI-3-5476. This windowpane support structure will be described with reference to FIG. 17 hereof.
Referring to FIG. 17, an automotive windowpane support structure 300 includes a slider 307 fixed to a windowpane 301 and a rail 306 slidably supporting the slider 307. The slider 307 is provided on an inside surface 302 of the windowpane 301 at the passenger compartment side, and is fixed to the windowpane 301 with a bolt 305 inserted through a mounting hole 304 from an outside surface 303 of the windowpane 301 at the outside of the automobile.
The windowpane 301 is moved up and down by a lifting means not shown. The slider 307 moves in a vertical direction along the rail 306, thereby moving the windowpane 301 up and down.
In the above windowpane support structure 300, however, to fix the slider 307 to the inside surface 302 of the windowpane 301, the bolt 305 is inserted from the outside surface 303 of the windowpane 301 into the mounting hole 304 to fix the slider 307 with the inserted bolt 305, so that a head 308 of the bolt 305 is protruded to the outer surface 303 of the windowpane 301. When the automobile is running, air flowing along the automobile body passes over the head 308 of the bolt 305 as shown by arrows, becoming turbulent, and causing hissing sounds.
In addition, the protrusion of the head 308 of the bolt 305 outside the windowpane 301 causes the head 308 of the bolt 305 to be seen from outside the passenger compartment, leaving room for improvement in aesthetic terms.
Moreover, for an improvement in automobile design and a reduction in air resistance, there is a demand for a flatter body surface, that is, a flusher body surface.
In the automotive windowpane support structure 300, the rail 306 has an opening 309 with a width S made smaller than that of the slider 303 so as to prevent the slider 307 from sliding out of the opening 309.
When fitting the slider 307 into the rail 306, the slider 307 is thus forcedly pressed into the opening 309 of the narrow width S. The operation of fitting the slider 307 into the rail 306 is difficult.
As a fastening member for mounting the rail 306 of the automotive windowpane support structure 300 to a window sash, a clip (not shown) is generally known.
To mount the rail 306 to the sash with the clip, it is necessary to provide clip mounting portions to the sash and the rail 306, respectively.
Specifically, a mounting portion (not shown) is projected from the side of the rail 306 and the sash is partially projected opposite to the mounting portion. To the projected sash portion, the mounting portion of the rail 306 is mounted with the clip to mount the rail 306 to the window sash.
This mounting method, however, requires that the mounting portion be projected from the side of the rail 306 and the sash be partially projected opposite to the mounting portion. The mounting portion of the rail 306 and the projected portion of the sash cover the edge of the windowpane 301 to a relatively large extent.
It is thus required to increase the width of a concealing portion provided at the edge of the windowpane 301 for concealing the mounting portion of the rail 306 and the projected portion of the sash.